Syrian rights group says rebels killed Italian Jesuit priest

The Syrian Presidential media office denied reports claiming that President Bashar Assad's residence in Damascus was targeted Wednesday.           

This as clashes intensified on various fronts in Daraa following the Free Syrian Army's declaration that it had fully controlled 5 bordering regions with Jordan.                   

On another note, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria have killed an Italian Jesuit priest who disappeared in the east of the country late last month.                 

Paolo Dall'Oglio, a vocal supporter of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and some Islamist rebel groups, disappeared in the rebel-held city of Raqqa on July 29.                    

He had served for three decades at the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, or Deir Mar Musa, before being expelled from the country in 2012. Since then he had returned to Syria at least twice.                    

The British-based monitoring group cited local activists in the city of Raqqa with close links to Dall'Oglio as saying he was killed while being held by fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).         

It was not immediately possible to confirm the report.             

Activists initially said he was kidnapped by the ISIL fighters, although some later said he had been meeting the al Qaeda-linked fighters to agree a truce with Kurdish brigades.                      

Separately, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the Central Bank of Syria is now allowing private banks to sell foreign currencies to individuals, in a bid to boost the deteriorating Syria currency.         

Governor of the Central Bank of Syria Adeeb Mayaleh said that citizens are now permitted to buy foreign currencies for non-commercial purposes in the price fixed by the Central Bank.         

Governor Mayaleh said that such measures were taken to preserve the stability of the Syrian Pound.                  

He also asserted that the Central Bank is committed to fund the imports of basic materials through the banks working in Syria at special rates.   
        

REUTERS/LBCI